TGS 2005: Code Age Commanders

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Square Enix goes cyber weird.

By Jeremy Dunham

Just as it did for Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus, Square Enix had the same build of Code Age Commanders on display that it did at its "Party" event back in July. A brand new franchise, the pretty-looking PS2 RPG is from the same art director as Final Fantasy VI, VII, and X (Yusuke Naora), the same character designer as Final Fantasy (Toshiyuki Itahana), and SaGa producer, Akatashi Kawazu.

One of the reasons that Code Age Commanders is so interesting is because it's just one of several planned episodes in a larger franchise that cover a variety of genres (including comics and mobile phones). In this demo, players took control of main characters Gene, Fiona, and Gerald -- half-human / half-creature people known as "War Heads." These guys' background story is a little complicated (and even harder to understand from floor reps when you only speak basic Japanese), but your basic goal is to lead Gene throughout the game's futuristic landscapes and locate miniature monsters known as Otello (created to bring war and the reason that other "Coded" creatures have gone haywire).

Of course, you get to do more than just find these little Otello baddies, you also get to capture them and use them as weapons to gain their properties and attributes. Some Otello are your basic offensive type, others are defensive and allow you to heal when in trouble. Either way, the Otello metamorphose your hands into new and interesting forms which proves how much of a focus Code Age's character customization really is. This "Self Evolution System" will reward players who do particular things in Daggerfall-type ways (run a lot and your character becomes faster, etc) and incorporate traditional RPG upgrade points for modification as well.

So far, Code Age Commanders looks like it could be a lot of fun. It's action-oriented gameplay and CPU-controlled companions makes it a sort of "Kingdom Hearts light" (just without the jumping). It's also kind of cool that you have separate action buttons for each hand and that you can use each appendage for entirely different functions. Hopefully, we'll get to hear some kind of American announcement for Code Age Commanders sometime soon, because as of right now, it's only slated for Japanese release sometime next year.